Calming down around dogs...

You really have to up the ante on your training. We see this sort of thing a lot with young BCs.  They really want to respond to movement and some bred to GO but with no STOP, can be really obnoxious in this respect.

You have to train that STOP into your dog.  He should look to you before doing something, not just go do it.  This is going NILIF one better.  When you open a door, for instance, he should wait until you go through or you give him a command to do something on the other side of the door.  When you are out together, he should be always thinking, "What's she doing, where's she going?  does she need me?"  You do that by having him on a "loose heel" at all times - that is, he might be in front of you playing or doing something, but if you turn around and leave, he should instantly come with you with no commands.

How you get this response is up to you.  You can get this with clicker or OC training but it will take some very careful and thoughful training.  Generally with the sheepdogs (which are much more biddable than the bully breeds I think), we can simply guide them with a verbal correction at the right time, especially if we can train them young.  You might try using a long line to give you confidence.  Always do something WAY COOL if you get that response, but remember that he's still to stay with you whether you've rewarded him or not.  Keep your expectations 100% and he'll increase his response to 100% very quickly!

Work with a long line dragging for a while and work on actually giving your dog more freedom, but with the knowlege that you'll be setting some consistent limits.  Your goal is to have a dog that is paying so much attention to you, completely of his own accord, because you are so WAY COOL - so much attention that he doens't even notice the other dogs.[]

It's my understanding that bully breeds in general can have much higher prey drives than BCs in general, but I've seen plenty of nicely-behaved pit bulls and whatnot, with the exact type of obedience I've described - so it's surely not impossible.

Yes!, Brookgrove made a good point with the NILF program. I rememeber enforcing some of its rules with Rory. I'ma softie so we didnt do it full fledged but it did help with her knowing who is master. I did do the door thing and have forgotten about it because she still obeys it and I no longer haev to enforce it. When I got home from work and it was time for dinner I would put Rory out back but where she could see me eat through the sliding glass door so she'd watch me eat and only after that would I feed her. (my mother thought it was the cruelest torture) and yes it hurt to look out there and see her so sad but that is how they eat in packs, the alpha first and my girl never begs. Its funny how I forget so quickly.
HHHmmmm, what else? Oh and I would never put her leash on until she had sat and waitied patiently. I was not going to have this dog get all crazy everytime I grabbed her leash. Now days if she is off leash all I have to do is shake it and she comes a runnin! Good luck!

ORIGINAL: brookcove

You really have to up the ante on your training. We see this sort of thing a lot with young BCs.  They really want to respond to movement and some bred to GO but with no STOP, can be really obnoxious in this respect.

You have to train that STOP into your dog.  He should look to you before doing something, not just go do it.  This is going NILIF one better.  When you open a door, for instance, he should wait until you go through or you give him a command to do something on the other side of the door.  When you are out together, he should be always thinking, "What's she doing, where's she going?  does she need me?"  You do that by having him on a "loose heel" at all times - that is, he might be in front of you playing or doing something, but if you turn around and leave, he should instantly come with you with no commands.

How you get this response is up to you.  You can get this with clicker or OC training but it will take some very careful and thoughful training.  Generally with the sheepdogs (which are much more biddable than the bully breeds I think), we can simply guide them with a verbal correction at the right time, especially if we can train them young.  You might try using a long line to give you confidence.  Always do something WAY COOL if you get that response, but remember that he's still to stay with you whether you've rewarded him or not.  Keep your expectations 100% and he'll increase his response to 100% very quickly!

Work with a long line dragging for a while and work on actually giving your dog more freedom, but with the knowlege that you'll be setting some consistent limits.  Your goal is to have a dog that is paying so much attention to you, completely of his own accord, because you are so WAY COOL - so much attention that he doens't even notice the other dogs.[]

It's my understanding that bully breeds in general can have much higher prey drives than BCs in general, but I've seen plenty of nicely-behaved pit bulls and whatnot, with the exact type of obedience I've described - so it's surely not impossible.

 
It sounds like an excellant plan and I don't mean to sound stupid, but can you be more specific, or is there a website or book that goes into greater detail?
 
We live in an apartment.  The only time she is off leash is in the indoor arena (we live next to a horse barn), but I do have a 100 ft line that I take her out to a couple of nearby fields with.  Her recall isn't 100%, although we are working on it with increasing success.
 
If I'm walking her on the long line, do I reward for her following/coming up to me when asked?  In the house, do I reward when I walk into a different room and she follows me?

I was wondering if not getting him neutered is what is making him so aggressive towards oher dogs because he's not generally that aggressive.

 
It probably isn't helping, unfortunately.  Anyway, if he's aggressive, why would you want to breed him? 
 
 
I'm at a loss to know why those of you with reactive dogs are using any "corrections" when the dog spots another dog.  That usually makes things worse, not better.  The key to desensitizing a dog to the presence of other dogs is to get his attention focused back on you, the handler, long before the approaching dog gets into your dog's discomfort zone.
Good book on the subject:
"Scaredy Dog - How to Understand and Rehabilitate Your Reactive Dog" by Ali Brown.

I don't know if she's afraid of the other dogs-she doesn't lunge at them or anything, she just strains to go meet them.  How to you know if it's reactivity as apposed to just wanting to go see a dog?

Whether its fear or excitement, I think spiritdogs and brookcove are still right - the key is getting the dog focused back on you.  I wonder if there's some way eventually in her training to set her up where she has to look to you for some cue that it's ok to go greet the dog.  But until she gets that cue, she must stop and sit/lay down and wait.  Perhaps before she meets the dog, she must successfully complete some command.  (Man, that sounds more simplistic than I meant it to.)
 
Increase her regular obedience training to help enforce her attention on and deference to you.  Spiritdogs - what do you think about focus training?  Think that might help?
 
(By the way, we use the foot on the leash for huge, prey-driven Dobes, so don't believe that only applies to small, manageable dogs.)

I know that focus in general is somthing that we really need to work on.  I actually think that that is the weakest link in our training right now.  I do NILIF at home.  Would it help to make her "watch" me before doing things like going through a door, etc, and releasing her as she watches me?